BY ED BRUCE edbrucevegas@yahoo.com
POPS lll
BROADWAY A LA CARTE
THIS... FIVE VOICES AND THE SYMPH0NY AT UNLV'S HAM HALL....PRETTY MUCH SOLD OUT AND RIGHTFULLY SO.
THIS COULD HAVE BEEN THE SYMPHONYS FINEST HOUR !
I say this not because of the music, the vocalists or the total picture but because of how this symphony has developed and played relivant to all challenges.
Conductor David Itkin you are one of my heros...I love your preparation, your comments, your jokes, your work ethic and most of all your results. Itkin now finishing his third year here in Las Vegas also is in his 17th and final year of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and his fifth year as Conductor of the Abilene Philharmonic.....how the hell does he do it all....as well as teach and lecture ?
Next... I am not a fan of more than one person doing vocals unless the Mills Brothers are being reunited under a star in the sky ! However, this nights arrangements were mostly solos sung very well from four movie scores . Three visiting sopranos and two local artists. A Las Vegas tenor and baritone...Kevin Sherrell lead singer in Jubilee took this opportunity to show off his marvelous voice and Bruce Ewing who has been singing to me for years...now in the Phantom...spectacular as always but still best in Forever Plaid.
South Pacific....Rogers and Hammerstein stand at the pinnacle of music score producers and never illustrated better than what was arranged tonight. 20 minutes with all four singers taking part in too abbreviated takes on the great songs from this classic. The production of getting all the cues and entrances and voice takes perfect never better than here...this the only one of the four scores where the vocals put the orchestra in the background...still a perfect meld and when it was over I thought it won't get better than this and it didn't. This Nearly Was Mine by Sherrell my favorite and Sherrell's finest hour.
Hello Dolly...I am not sure I ever saw this movie and I am sure the lyrics here not at the Rogers and Hammerstein level...but what is ? Honestly I was unfamiliar with all the songs and lyrics except Dolly and that puts everything into taste and history. The orchestra could have done without vocalists here !
Evita...A replay of Dolly...one classic song and too much of what I was unfamiliar with in the lyrics category....glad I was...maybe a bit too loud here with the total picture unclear and unfullfiling in getting the word to me. Although the back row of the balcony still my favorite seat with the sound system nearly always perfect there...I had some trouble with this...maybe just unfamiliar lyrics !
Les Miserables...Bruce Ewing, thank you for your genius all these years and never moreso than here...what a pro you are in delivering your god given talent. Music vocals from Schonberg and the team concept of singing which I still have not changed my mind on worked well here. Big finish.
Again the total picture of producing, writing and delivering this monster was brilliant...the work, the team work, the production, the writing, the rehersals and every piece of the pie executed perfectly in the Las Vegas Philharmonics finest hour.
Diamonds are Forever Gala fundraiser at the M Casino April 10 702 258
gala2010@lvphil.com
LVPHIL April 3 Masterworks lv at Ham Hall... Debussy, Chopin and Greig 702 895 2787
How proud I am to live in Las Vegas where I am home to this Philharmonic.
101 A+
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